Contents

Introduction

This timeline is part of a larger timeline that covers the over 50-million-year history of the Ancients. To view the entire timeline, visit Timeline of the Ancients, which also includes an overview of the Ancients' evolutionary path and author's notes.

Original home galaxy, often referred to as simply the Ori galaxy because only the Ori remained there.

The Altera and their brethren the Ori were humans on the evolutionary path toward ascension, but it is unknown if there were ascended beings who existed before or during this period, and if they existed, whether or not the humans were aware of them. The Ori greatly outnumbered the Altera and were preparing to wipe them out because of their conflicting philosophical views. By the end of this period, the only Ancients that existed were the Altera, the mountaintop villagers who chose to leave their home aboard a single spaceship rather than engage in a war. The Ori were left behind to continue on their own path.

Primarily in the Milky Way, their new home that they named "Avalon". The Altera became known as the Ancients.

This period includes the establishment of the Stargate network in the Milky Way, the exploration of their new home galaxy and others through the launch of their exploration fleet of Stargate-seeding starships and follow-up exploration vessel Destiny (see Stargate Universe), the formation of alliances, the advancement in weapons and other technology, the development of the means to collect and store their accumulated knowledge, and the continued research into the acceleration of evolution through genetic alteration to achieve ascension. Some of the Ancients had evolved to the point that they could ascend on their own. The defining moment that ends this period is the occurrence of the plague that swept throughout the galaxy that forced the Ancients to ascend, to leave the galaxy, or to die out. Because of the plague and the heightened research into ascension, the Ancients never boarded Destiny, but instead left the exploration fleet to continue on its automated course.

Pegasus. The Ancients were called the Ancestors by the humans of the Pegasus galaxy.

This period opens with the plague sweeping throughout the Milky Way that forced the Ancients to leave the galaxy in one form or another—whether it be by ascending, by leaving the galaxy as humans (in spaceships, for example), or by dying out. The Ancients that ascended joined together in a collective called The Others. The Ori, although not hit by a plague, also ascended and established themselves as the gods of the religion "Origin". This period also includes the creation of the second generation (evolution) of humanity in the three galaxies: the original Altera/Ori home galaxy, the Milky Way, and Pegasus. As they did in the Milky Way, the Ancients in Pegasus built a Stargate network and settled on several planets. By the end of this period, more Ancients had ascended and apparently joined their own ancestors who were with The Others; however, no more ascended beings joined the Ori because the Ori did not wish to share their power and prevented their humanity from evolving to the point where they could ascend on their own or through the use of advanced technology. This period ends when the last of the Lantian survivors of the Wraith-Ancient War abandoned Atlantis and used the Stargate to return to Earth, where they blended into Earth's societies, left the planet through the Stargate, or ascended.

This is when the majority of Ancients are Ascended Beings, and other races use and abuse their legacy. At the beginning of this period, the Lantian Ancients had just returned to Earth after abandoning Pegasus to the Wraith and chose to blend in with Earth's societies, to leave Earth through the Stargate, or to ascend. Proof of the Ancients' blending into the human population of the Milky Way is the natural occurrence of the ATA gene (Ancient Technology Activation gene) that allows the possessor to activate and interface with genetically-keyed Ancient technology, as well as the cultural influences of the world's ancient civilizations. Some Ancients from earlier in this period survived into the modern era in human form via stasis, time travel, or some other form of technological means, while a few Ascended Ancients chose to retake human form. This period includes the reopening of the Stargate in modern times and a near-repeat of history as the humans of Earth assimilate the Ancients' legacy, which not only includes knowledge and technology, but also old rivalries that the Ancients had failed to resolve. It also includes the discovery of Destiny, which opened up the universe to exploration (albeit limited) and to the exposure to new life forms untouched by Ancient hands.

ca A.D. 500

This time estimate is based the Merlin hologram's message that was discovered in Avalon. In it, he associated King Arthur to Ambrosius Aurelianus, who fought in the Battle of Mount Badon, which most scholars place at around A.D. 500. (9.01 "Avalon Part 1")

Moros and Ganos Lal begin to actively oppose the Ori:

Once ascended, Moros learned of the Ori and how The Others were shielding humanity from them. He believed that the Ori were a major threat not only to the humans, but also to the ascended Ancients who were their rivals. He decided to give up his ascension and return to human form to develop a weapon that could be used against ascended beings. He returned to this form with his knowledge and powers, making him one of the most powerful beings of his time on Earth. (9.18 "Arthur's Mantle", 10.03 "The Pegasus Project")

Moros, who became known as Myrddin and then Merlin of Arthurian legends, reestablished "Avalon" on Earth (the name the Altera gave to their new home in the Milky Way) and what remains of it exists to this day inside the Glastonbury Tor in England. This place also has a ring transporter, holographic technology, and sophisticated interactive artificial intelligence computer systems, as well as the treasures of Ambrosius Aurelianus (King Arthur). (9.01 "Avalon Part 1", 9.02 "Avalon Part 2")

Merlin developed a phase-shifting device, later called "Arthur's Mantle", to hide himself in an alternate dimension to develop his weapon in secret, supposedly where The Others could not find him. When he left Earth, he left this device behind in "Avalon". (9.18 "Arthur's Mantle")

Merlin started settlements on other planets, all centered around King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, including the community on a planet called "Camelot", where he had his sanctuary and left his library of research, historical documents, and prophecies. He protected his library and his anti-ascended weapon with a sophisticated security system. (9.18 "Arthur's Mantle", 9.20 "Camelot Part 2", 10.03 "The Pegasus Project", 10.11 "The Quest Part 2")

The Others sent Ganos Lal to watch Merlin because they feared that he might be successful in developing this device that could destroy ascended beings. Ganos, whose name is Morgan Le Fay in Arthurian legends, found Merlin on "Camelot" and destroyed the weapon, but preserved Merlin in an Ancient stasis chamber because she agreed with what he was trying to do as far as the Ori were concerned. Merlin's disappearance prompted Arthur and his Knights to go on the Quest for the Holy Grail, but in this case, the Holy Grail was a misinterpretation of the name for the Sangreal, which really was a "Blood Stone" in the form of a red jewel worn as a pendant. (9.20 "Camelot Part 2", 10.03 "The Pegasus Project", Stargate: The Ark of Truth)

For well over a thousand years, Merlin lived in that pod, oblivious to the passage of time and growing old ever so slowly. (10.11 "The Quest Part 2")

Morgan established a private network of Stargates to hide Merlin and his knowledge of how to build the weapon. She put in place clues so that Arthur and his Knights could figure out where Merlin was hidden, but none of them succeeded in their quest. Among the planets visited by the Knights in their quest were Castiana, Sahal, and Vagonbrei. (9.20 "Camelot Part 2", 10.10 "The Quest Part 1", 10.11 "The Quest Part 2")

The Others continued to shield humanity, apparently satisfied with Morgan's destruction of the weapon. (9.03 "Origin Part 3", 10.11 "The Quest Part 2")

ca A.D. 1000

This time estimate is based on Jacob/Selmak's reaction to the news that Anubis had returned to rejoin the System Lords and on the conversation Osiris had with Yu concerning Anubis's absence. (5.16 "Last Stand Part 2")

Anubis ascends with the help of Oma Desala:

Around this time, Anubis and Telchak were in battle over the Ancient device now known as the Telchak Device from which Telchak had designed the sarcophagus. Anubis won the battle, but he didn't find the Device. Telchak had hidden it in one of his temples in Central America, in modern-day Honduras. Telchak became known as the Mayan god Chac, and it is believed that the Device was the basis of the Fountain of Youth myth because of its healing and rejuvinating powers. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")

The System Lords were a select group of Goa'uld who had the greatest power and the largest domains. Among these System Lords were Ra, Apophis, Yu, and Anubis, to name but a few. Anubis, however, committed crimes that even the Goa'uld described as "unspeakable", so they threw him off of the System Lord's High Council and tried to kill him. (5.16 "Last Stand Part 2")

Apparently Anubis was very interested in powerful Ancient technology (as his pursuit of the Telchak Device indicates) and by this time, he had discovered Ancient research on ascension. He fled to Kheb and tricked Oma into ascending him. As soon as Oma realized what she had done by ascending an evil being such as a Goa'uld, she tried to undo her work, but The Others stepped in. They sent him back "halfway" between corporeal existence and ascension, but he still remained a being of energy with eternal life. They also forbade him to use any knowledge or power obtained through ascension, unless he otherwise would have gained it as a Goa'uld. Anubis was out of the System Lord picture for a thousand years before he made his return. He had to develop a containment shield that allowed him to interact with those in the corporeal plane. This containment shield gave him a humanoid appearance, but he had to wear a cloak that hid his "face". (6.22 "Full Circle", 8.03 "Lockdown", 8.18 "Threads")

ca A.D. 1600

The Others banish Orlin for interfering with the development of the Velonans:

By this time, The Others had long established their rules of non-interference as far as interacting with the lower planes of existence, but there were still some members among them who felt a strong attachment to humans. One such Ancient was Orlin, who didn't want to stand by and watch as the Goa'uld overtook the Velonans, so he communicated the knowledge of how to build a powerful weapon for defense. The Velonans were not advanced enough on their own to take the responsibility of suddenly having such power, so after they used the weapon on the Goa'uld, they turned it on other planets for conquest. The Others destroyed the Velonans because they would have been destroyed by the Goa'uld if Orlin had not interfered and banished Orlin to the desolate planet, where he remained all by himself for four hundred years. (5.03 "Ascension")

A.D. 1928-1929

The Langford Expedition uncovers the Giza Stargate; Time traveler arrives to save the Stargate:

Professor Langford was leading an archaeological expedition in Giza, Egypt, in 1928, when he discovered a large circular coverstone and a ring-shaped device underneath it. The coverstone and the device were kept in storage in Egypt until Langford could get the items shipped to the United States for study. (Stargate: The Movie, 1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", Stargate: Continuum)

Langford's Expedition also found several small artifacts, including a gold pendant that had the eye of Ra etched on it. Langford's little daughter Catherine was given the necklace, and she always wore it, believing it was a good luck charm. (Stargate: The Movie, 1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus")

A future alternate timeline version of Cameron Mitchell (the future leader of SG-1) prematurely arrived in 1929 instead of his target of 1939. He was on a mission to stop the last of the Goa'uld System Lords, Ba'al, from intercepting the Stargate on its way from Africa to the United States in the hold of the cargo ship Achilles. Ba'al intended to rewrite the timeline with himself as the supreme commander of the galaxy. For ten years, Mitchell had to make sure that he himself didn't impact the timeline and that he was aboard the Achilles when Ba'al arrived. (Stargate: Continuum)

A.D. 1931

The Steward Expedition finds the tomb of Osiris and Isis:

The Steward Expedition found a small pyramid temple several miles outside of present-day Cairo, Egypt. They uncovered several artifacts, including 10,000-year-old ones and the canopic jars into which Osiris and Isis had been banished. The ship transporting these artifacts to the United States sank off the coast of New Jersey six months after the discovery. Isis died when her canopic jar was damaged in the shipwreck, but Osiris's jar remained intact. When the Expedition members unsealed the tomb, they were exposed to mold spores that caused them all to die within a year. From all of this misfortune, the artifacts were said to be cursed because the tomb had been disturbed. (4.14 "The Curse")

A.D. 1939

Dr. Langford convinced United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin the study of the device he found in Egypt, which he called the "Doorway to Heaven". Roosevelt thought that it might have been a weapon, and he wanted to prevent it from falling into enemy hands before the outbreak of World War II, so he ordered that the crated artifact be shipped to the United States by the Merchant Marines aboard the Achilles. Captain Mitchell, not knowing what the cargo was, plotted a course that zig-zagged across the Atlantic to avoid U-Boats. The ship, its crew, and its precious cargo arrived safely in Boston after the intervention of a time traveling version of the captain's grandson, Cameron Mitchell, prevented the Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al from changing the timeline. (It was the System Lord's plan to blow up the Achilles to stop the Stargate from reaching the United States, thus preventing the founding of the Stargate Program that would see the end of the Goa'uld System Lords' reign.). (1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", Stargate: Continuum)

Remarkably, the time traveler was photographed with the captain after the Achilles safely reached Boston, and this picture was passed down in the family until it got to Cameron Mitchell in the present day. Even though the time traveler, the captain, and the crew of Achilles were witness to Ba'al's invasion and the Achilles was damaged with the unstable vortex of the Stargate's wormhole, the secrets of the Stargate were kept so that the "original" timeline was preserved. (Stargate: Continuum)

A.D. 1945

First modern man from Earth travels through the Stargate to another world; Pangarans find Egeria:

Langford's research team had to attach power and dial the Stargate manually because they didn't have the Dial Home Device (DHD). It was later revealed that the Russians confiscated it from the Germans after the end of the war. (1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", 4.07 "Watergate")

One of the members of Langford's research team was Professor Ernest Littlefield, a young archaeologist who was engaged to be married to Langford's 21-year-old daughter Catherine. Littlefield was so preoccupied with studying the Stargate that he failed to ask Langford for Catherine's hand in marriage. He determined that the cartouche on the coverstone was actually a six-point location in space and that the device was capable of going to lots of places because there were more than six symbols on it. Langford dismissed this theory, instead advocating that "doorway to heaven" could mean that the device kills. (1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus")

The team randomly dialed the Stargate and succeeded at making a connection. Littlefield volunteered to go through it. He was fitted in a diver's suit, but after he passed through the event horizon, the Stargate deactivated, and his umbilical was severed. No one knew what had happened to him, but they all assumed that he was dead. The Stargate was packed into a storage crate and placed in an armory in Washington, D.C. The research film and papers were packed away into boxes and stored in the Pentagon. Langford never told Catherine that the Stargate had been activated and that Ernest had stepped through it. Instead, he told her that Ernest died in an explosion at the lab. Catherine, brokenhearted, never married. (1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", 2.21 "1969")

At about this same time (perhaps closer to A.D. 1950), the people of the planet Pangar found Egeria's canopic jar and began conducting research on the symbiote. They found that the Goa'uld have a natural healing property that they could exploit. They forced the queen to produce larvae, which they in turn began to use as an ingredient in a drug they called "Tretonin". They developed a usable formula by 1970 and began taking the drug that gave them perfect health. Unfortunately, after continual use, the drug destroyed their immune systems, and the users had to stay on the drug or die. Research and development continued until they met SG-1 during its sixth year of operation. (6.10 "Cure")

ca A.D. 1969-1994

Although Stargate: The Movie was released in 1994, the series Stargate SG-1 held it as canon that Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill went through the Stargate to Abydos one year prior to the series' premiere on Showtime on 27 July 1997. Several dates in this section are derived from the 1997 premiere date and from what was said about the study of the Stargate in the pilot "Children of the Gods". It should also be noted that the location of the Stargate in the movie was Creek Mountain, whereas it was established in the pilot that the Stargate had been housed in Cheyenne Mountain when Daniel reopened it.

Catherine Langford resumes the study of the Giza Stargate:

Catherine Langford began to study the Stargate once again using her father's research notes, which he told her were all that existed to document his project. She still wasn't told that her father's team activated the "Doorway to Heaven" back in 1945 and that Ernest Littlefield had gone through it. The study of the device was slow, but Catherine recognized the need to provide it with stable power to unlock the inner ring. (1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", 2.21 "1969")

Langford's interest in starting up the study of the device once again might have been sparked by a visit from a young man claiming to be the son of one of her father's colleagues. He and the young woman who accompanied him discussed the discoveries made by the Langford Expedition and asked about the current whereabouts of the device. Amazingly, this young couple were actually the time travelers Dr. Daniel Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter, who had been accidentally sent back to 1969 by the Stargate and needed to get back to their own time where they were members of SG-1 in the Stargate Program. (2.21 "1969")

Starting in 1982, Catherine's research team began to develop a computerized system to dial the Stargate instead of having to do it manually. (1.01 "Children of the Gods Part 1")

Catherine was not given access to her father's team's research that was classified and filed away in the Pentagon when her project came under the control of the Air Force around 1985. Eventually, the project, called Project Giza, was overseen by General West and was kept deep in the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Catherine was promised complete autonomy in the project, even though it was being overseen by the US military. The research team continued to develop a computer program that would spin the inner ring and lock the chevrons on the Stargate, but they never could get the device to activate because they failed to recognize the need for the seventh chevron (to indicate the point of origin to plot a course to the point in space defined by the other six symbols in the Stargate address from the coverstone). (Stargate: The Movie, 1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus")

Air Force Captain Samantha Carter held a doctorate in Theoretical Astrophysics and was assigned to Catherine's team to study the Stargate sometime around 1994. Most of her time was spent at the Pentagon trying to convince the Air Force to continue the study of the device, even though they still didn't know what it was. This project was later called the Stargate Program after Dr. Daniel Jackson solved the riddle of the device's function. (1.01 "Children of the Gods Part 1", 1.11 "The Torment of Tantalus", 2.09 "Secrets")

Also around 1994, Catherine brought in new team members to translate the coverstone and study the device in Cheyenne Mountain. (Stargate: The Movie, 1.01 "Children of the Gods Part 1")

Articles on the Ancients

This series of articles covers the history, language, writings, knowledge, and technology of the Ancients.